Maputo — Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party has promised to analyse the supposed illegality of the same person holding, at the same time, the posts of President of the Republic and President of Frelimo.

The question was raised in an article published in the independent weekly "Savana', and written by one of Frelimo's most respected intellectuals, Oscar Monteiro, who is a former Minister of the Interior, and was once a member of Frelimo's Political Bureau.

Monteiro argued that, under the Mozambican constitution, nobody can be both President of the Republic and President of a political party. One way to solve this problem would be for the current President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, to resign his post as leader of Frelimo.

Speaking to reporters in Maputo on Tuesday, immediately after a meeting of the Frelimo Political Commission, the party's spokesperson, Ludmila Maguni, said that, if a question is raised by various prominent Mozambican jurists, Frelimo cannot neglect it.

She added that Frelimo will have to analyse in depth how the question is treated in the Mozambican Constitution and in the Frelimo Statutes. Based on this analysis, the party would have to decide on the best way to react.

In fact, the Constitution is very clear. Article 148 states "the President of the Republic may not, except in cases expressly envisaged in the Constitution, exercise any other public function, and under no circumstances, may the President perform any private functions'.

Since political parties are private bodies, this article prohibits anybody from being both President of the Republic and leader of a political party at the same time.

And yet, ever since Mozambican independence in 1975, the President of the Republic has also been the President of Frelimo. Attempts were made to separate the posts. In 2005, when Armando Guebuza became President of the Republic, it was proposed that his predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, should remain President of Frelimo.

Ten years later, after Filipe Nyusi was elected President of the Republic, there were calls for Guebuza to hold on to the post of President of Frelimo.

In both cases, the Frelimo Central Committee ruled that the two positions should be held by the same person. The Frelimo leadership was this strongly opposed to separating the two posts.

Nobody pointed out (not publicly, at any rate) that this was a violation of the Constitution.